Inequity in Latin America-CHILE

The Harvard University Center for Child Development has chosen to start a program in Chile called "a Good Start" in which they focus on three area of development in order to improve child learning in Chile.  The started out with four sites and will expand to 60. Their main focus is teacher training.  I high quality teachers equal higher knowledge in their students.  Their second focus is keeping the children healthy so they are at school and ready to learn. High quality language instruction and getting parents involved are other component they will start in each site.  They are committed to ending the inequities in Chile and hope to have the program spread to other countries in Latin America. 

They also have programs starting in other countries and research on other developmental issues surrounding children  especially mental health issues.


The site does not go in depth as to what inequities Chiles has nor how they plan on over coming them other than to have actor both private and public to commit to two years of helping them.

References:
http://developingchild.harvard.edu/index.php/activities/global_initiative/

A Deeper Look

I chose to look at the tab "Take Action".  In this section they write about several topic, two of them I explored in depth.  They are Love Me, Teach Me campaign and the Decade of the Child.
Love Me, Teach Me is a program to get teachers and parent to think about how they treat the children in their lives and around the world.  It is broken into four parts: See Me, Hear Me, Love Me, and Teach Me.  Each part deals with how children should be seen with respect.  See Me is about registering your child at birth to give them the rights they deserve.  Hear Me is about listening to your child and taking then into account when making decisions. Love Me is just what it say even if you do not have your own children stand up for others who need help.  Teach Me is about giving quality education to all children every where.
They also have another action starting in 2012 focusing in on children every where for next ten years.   Their goal to re-establish childhood as that and then try to answer these three questions:

During the Decade, we will seek to answer questions such as these:

• What is our view of the human being and how does that affect our view of childhood?
• Have changes in child-rearing practices and societal expectations of children served children well or contributed to a decline in their overall well-being?
• What supports children—and ultimately all of us—in creating strong relationships, a healthy environment, and opportunities for lifelong growth and learning; and how do we make these a normal part of every child’s life?(ACEI.org.)

You can become part of both activities by signing up on their web site.

Reference: acei.org retrieved  July 23, 2011

Poverty in Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan is a relatively young country, gaining independence in 1991, with new problems that they had not had when they were part of the Soviet Union.  They decide to use "shock therapy" to jump start the economy, privatizing many state run industries and farm.  They had some growth in 2001 of 5.3% in their GDP with 60% of the country being in agriculture.  At the time of their of independence they were at their poorest 32.9% below the Soviet poverty level. It rose to its highest point after independence to 60% but then fell to 47% in 2001 with extreme poverty being 13%.  Many of their children live in poverty 41% in urban and 51% in rural areas.  UNICEF has done a independent study of the country and found that 75% of the children are malnourished and 14% have no health care.  85%-90% go to school and kindergarten attendance in down 30% .  The decline is due to the cost of school and health care and the lack of resources. 
This country has started to address these problem and has a 30 year plan broken up in to smaller goals to not only end childhood poverty but poverty in general. 

Web resources

Last week I got a little a head of myself with out realizing it.  The local group I choose was HeadStart and the international group was association for childhood eduation international
with the HeadStart they have a place to join again at a reasonable rate $25.00 that will get you access to classes they offer and the e-magizine they publish and scholarships. For the international group they have chapters all over the world and a very  local one for me here in Tacoma Washington. To join is reasonable $35 for students and the benefit are:
Student members receive:

• A subscription to award-winning Childhood Education (six issues per year).
• A subscription to ACEI’s member newsletter, ACEI Exchange (a special supplement in Childhood Education).
• ACEI E-news, monthly (12 issues per year). Provides international education highlights, links to resources and events. (Email address is required.)
• ACEI Action – Advocacy alerts on timely public policy issues relating to childhood education and children’s rights from sources worldwide.
• Discounts on ACEI book publications – 20% off retail price.
• Reduced registration fees to ACEI’s Annual International Conference and other ACEI events.
• Volunteer and leadership opportunities, including chapter networking opportunities.

 

World Connections

Because of time constrains and not paying attention to how long the assignment might take I will start with the alternative and then move to finding a contact around the world. 
http://worldforumfoundation.org/wf/wp/about-us  is the site I went to.  If you have time check out Bonnie's Blog it is very interesting. They will soon have a discussion group going. 

For part one I have chosen HeadStart for a state side contact
 National Head Start Associationhttp://www.nhsa.org/  
(Newsletter: http://www.nhsa.org/news_and_advocacy/advocacy/legislative_eupdate 
and for a contact out of the United States
Association for Childhood Education Internationalhttp://acei.org/
(Review also these online resources at: http://acei.org/knowledge/
You can join the association for a fee and they have a students fee that is reasonable.